Paris Flyer!
When we interviewed two years ago, we went through the whole Qantas recruitment process, not the Adecco process like recently. We were on the shortlist for a year before we got a call and offered casual. Qantas do expect you to drop everything at the drop of a hat, some people given only a couple of days notice, this happens on more than one occassion. The way of thinking is that if you're not willing to drop everything then the next person on the list probably will. They will always have people willing to do the job no matter how long it takes or how little notice they give, so you're not the first to be kept waiting. You're actually lucky that you were offered ANYTHING, thousands of people would've loved the opportunity to have gone to London to work for QF pay or no pay, plenty of people that were on the shortlist for over a year and then sent the unsuccesfull email!
It's obviously your choice not to have anything more to do with QF, but waiting is the name of the game unfortunately (& trust me, i know about the whole waiting thing) and as said, if you're not willing to do it then there are thousands of people which are.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do!
Oz